"dramatically." Could you provide some specific examples?
I'll give you two examples; I could give you a dozen. The U.S. government spends $5 billion a year to support
the domestic price of sugar so that Americans can pay 22 cents a pound wholesale, when it is selling for 8 cents a
pound in the world market. Five billion dollars! We would be better off if the government told every sugar grower,
"We'll give you $100,000 a year for the rest of your life, a condominium, and a Porsche if you just get out of the
sugar business." We would save billions of dollars a year, and the whole country would be better off because we
would all be paying less for sugar.
If you really want to save a big number, do you know what our annual balance of trade deficit is? One
hundred and fifty billion dollars. Do you know what it costs us each year to keep American troops stationed in Europe?
One hundred and fifty billion dollars. American troops were sent there as an army of occupation forty-three years
ago! Most people in this country weren't even born when the decision was made to send our troops to Europe. They
are doing nothing there but sitting around, drinking beer, getting fat, and chasing girls. The GAO has said that we
don't have enough bullets to fight even a thirty-day war in Europe. Yet it costs us $150 billion a year to keep those
guys there. I would submit to you that if we stop spending that $150 billion a year and bring those troops home, the
Europeans would defend themselves. And the kicker is: Do you know who they would buy their guns from? They
would buy their guns from us, because they don't have a very good defense industry establishment.
But those are very unlikely actions. No politicians are even talking about those solutions.
I understand that. With the present cast of jerks in Washington, it is not going to happen. The politicians are
going to foul things up. They are not going to do what has to be done. They are going to be more concerned about
keeping their votes and winning the next election. That is going to continue until we are forced into solving our
problems. Then it is going to be a disaster.
Dostları ilə paylaş: 
